Tenure

Kansas’s Emporia State University is fighting a lawsuit from professors it decided to lay off in 2022. A lawmaker has filed a bill on behalf of its top lawyer, a defendant in the litigation.

Ken Levy of Louisiana State University told Trump-supporting students they need his “political commentary.” A series of judges has disagreed over whether he should be back in class. And Louisiana’s governor keeps attacking him on social media.

Even before Trump’s return, Republican legislators in some states were rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The campaign continues in current legislative sessions.

While one professor says faculty are “pre-emptively censoring themselves” in response, others are defiant—while another is asking himself, “What would I be willing to lose my job for?”

A faculty member says the university suspended him from teaching for a lecture that mentioned President Trump and criticized Louisiana governor Jeff Landry’s public calls to punish a colleague over similar allegations.